Chapter 1744 - Aerial Battle!

“The opposing side placed many traps on Green Deer Mountain, such as horse pits, trip ropes, and even many caltrops. They were placed with great skill so that they completely blocked off the south road. Clearing them up and filling in the holes requires an extensive amount of time.

“Green Deer Mountain is surrounded by mountains and thick forests on both sides of its roads, and there are places where warhorses can’t even hope to get through. Attempting a detour with tens of thousands of soldiers would only delay things even more. And taking another road would take more than half a day!

“Regardless, their time of arrival at the capital will be pushed back!”

Kim U-Seok lowered his head. He spoke the last words with particular force, as if they took all the strength in his body to squeeze out. His face went pale and cold sweat emerged on his forehead.

No one understood more than Kim U-Seok what the army being delayed meant. More importantly, the ambush on the Beiting Protectorate army was clearly connected with his negligence in gathering information.

But not even Kim U-Seok could have imagined that his opponent would use a method like this. The road to the capital from the northern frontier was long and winding. How could he possibly keep watch on every location?

But given the facts on the ground, he could not escape responsibility.

“This matter has nothing to do with you!” the Ghost King suddenly declared, breaking the oppressive mood. With vigorous footsteps, the Ghost King strode over to a nearby wall and pulled down a curtain.

Beneath the curtain was an incomplete military map of the Great Tang!

Many of the places on the map were ambiguous and not well-made, but the key locations were exceptionally detailed to an almost realistic level.

This ‘contest’ extended from the capital all the way to the border, so how could the Eastern Palace not produce a map of the Great Tang of its own? However, their map was clearly somewhat cruder than Wang Chong’s.

The moment Hou Junji unveiled the map, he almost immediately focused on Green Deer Mountain, and then his gaze turned sharp and cold.

“We were deceived. The soldiers from the triangular gap are already here!”

Hou Junji pointed a finger at Green River Mountain and delivered a stunning conclusion.

“If my guess is correct, they’ve also blockaded the three roads leading away from Green Deer Mountain. To simultaneously place enough traps on three roads to hinder an army of tens of thousands of soldiers would require eight thousand people at the minimum!

“I heard before that at the Battle of Talas, the joint force of Tibetans and Western Turks, an army numbering in the tens of thousands, had been preparing to attack the Tang forces from the rear, but in the end, they ended up being delayed by the King of Foreign Lands’ forces for several days. The leader of that delaying force was someone called Su Hanshan. Kim U-Seok, was this the name of the general in charge of the triangular gap?”

Kim U-Seok was startled and hastily replied, “Yes!”

“He’s the one!” Hou Junji coldly declared with a wave of his sleeve.

“Your Highness, get in touch with the Tibetans and have them do a little scouting. In all probability, a significant number of soldiers from the triangular gap have gone missing.”

“Fine!”

After a few moments of hesitation, the First Prince nodded. Neither the First Prince nor Hou Junji had been willing to use the power of the Tibetans in this operation. After all, the fewer people that knew about this plan, the better. But now, they had no other option.

“I always believed that we only needed to deal with that young scion of the Wang Clan, but to think that he would have such a formidable subordinate…! Inform Zhang Zheng that when he reaches the Yellow Scarf Mountains, he should advance through here.”

Hou Junji’s finger stabbed at a point on the map.

Everyone stared in stupefaction at this part of the map. It seemed like he was just pointing at a random mountain at first, but upon careful inspection, there was actually a small mountain stream there.

This stream was extremely narrow, but it flowed all the way south until it terminated at Bullhead Pass, the last checkpoint the army needed to get through.

Everyone immediately understood what was going on.

“Yes!”

Kim U-Seok’s mind was brimming with admiration as he spoke.

Taptaptap!

In the middle of all this, a series of rapid footsteps drew away everyone’s attention. Hou Junji, the First Prince, Kim U-Seok, and Meng Tu all turned to look at the same time.

“Reporting!”

A Golden Guard had rushed into the hall.

“We’ve just learned that one thousand fully-equipped cavalry have just been sent into the King of Foreign Lands Residence. These people have been stationed around the estate, making it difficult for our men to get close!”

“What?!”

The First Prince grimaced at these words.

“This bastard is so bold! He dares to summon cavalry right at the feet of the Son of Heaven? What is he trying to do?!”

One thousand fully armed and armored cavalry was not a small number, and the First Prince couldn’t help but be nervous. After all, Wang Chong was leading them, and under his command, one thousand cavalry could display the might of tens of thousands of cavalry. In the current situation, this was a force that the Eastern Palace had to fear.

“Zhu Tong’en, take a few people to the King of Foreign Lands Residence and ask him what he’s thinking!” the First Prince harshly said.

“Your Highness.”

At this moment, Meng Tu came forward and hesitantly whispered, “Wang Chong is a King and also has a special privilege from the Sage Emperor. This number of soldiers is completely within his authority. We have no right to stop him!”

Meng Tu’s words immediately cast the hall into silence and froze the First Prince’s face in shock.

“In addition, according to the laws of the court, the several hundred Golden Guards in the King of Foreign Lands Residence are not considered as part of the one-thousand-man limit. The King of Foreign Lands also has the privilege of using ballistae, something that no other King has,” Meng Tu stiffly added, further deepening the oppressive mood.

It was all true. Although Wang Chong was not a member of the imperial household, he was a King crowned by the Sage Emperor, and he actually wielded more power than the other Kings. Not even the First Prince could take away these privileges.

The Ghost King also couldn’t help but frown. Wang Chong’s move had also taken him by surprise, but for the moment, Hou Junji couldn’t see what he was up to.

“Keep a close watch on this situation! In addition, Kim U-Seok, I’m giving you only three days to finish scouring the city. Otherwise, you can offer up your head to the First Prince yourself!” Hou Junji said.

“Yes!”

Kim U-Seok coldly sweat as he bowed.

Whoosh!

A few moments later, countless messenger birds and birds of prey took off from the Eastern Palace, relaying the Ghost King’s orders.

……

Creee!

Several thousand meters in the sky, a muscular rock eagle was attacked by seven or eight other eagles. It shrieked as its body went stiff and it plunged from the skies. Thud! It slammed into the roof of one of the buildings in the King of Foreign Lands Residence and then slid down from the roof tiles in a bloody mess.

This rock eagle had the wounds from ten-some birds on its body.

Thud!

Another rock eagle plunged from the skies.

Over the last twenty-four hours, the number of birds battling above the estate had only increased. This vast flock of birds had already attracted a large crowd of onlookers, but the City Guard soldiers standing in the area gave them second thoughts about getting close.

In the yard, Zhang Que stood next to Wang Chong and worriedly said, “Your Highness, the situation is bad. We’ve sent all our birds, even the Eagle King, but their numbers are endless. In addition, they seem to be trying to completely seal off the estate. Any bird that flies out will be intercepted. We won’t be able to communicate with the other areas if this continues.”

This was the first aerial battle to ever take place in the capital, and it was one of enormous scale. Even though they were doing their best, the situation was just getting worse.

Wang Chong remained motionless as the miserable shrieks of dying birds continued to resound in his ears. In this interval of time, yet another bird had landed near Wang Chong’s feet.

Wang Chong’s eyes were half-closed in thought.

“Are they ready?” Wang Chong suddenly said.

Zhang Que was startled by this question, but then a voice came from behind him.

“Your Highness, they’re ready!”

Cheng Sanyuan walked out from the shadows. At his side was a youth with a battle-hardened face.

“Chen Burang!”

Zhang Que realized in shock who this person was, but wasn’t Chen Burang supposed to be with the army?

Suddenly, he realized what the plan was.

“Get ready!”

Wang Chong waved his hand.

Armored soldiers began to crisply march forward out of the King of Foreign Lands Residence. All of them were straight-backed and imposing. More importantly, each of them had a metal bow as tall as half a man on their shoulders.

“Ready!”

Chen Burang waved his hand and called out. A moment later, the fifty-some soldiers got down on one knee and took the bows from their backs. Each of them grabbed five or six arrows with their right hand, nocked the arrows to their bows, and then took aim at the dense cloud of birds.

And then all of them froze in place.

This series of actions was conducted so smoothly and cleanly, in such unison, that all of them seemed to be linked together. Their formidable training was on full display.

“Release!”

Hundreds of arrows shot through the air at lightning speed, soaring into the heavens.